Category: Norway

WHITE CHRISTMAS NORWAY

We begin our Norwegian journey in Bergen. We flew from Munich via Copenhagen to Bergen. We were a little late arriving and didn’t get to our hotel until about 11.30pm which was a great shame as our room was lovely and we were right on the waterfront in a perfect location. Breakfast was divine so we wish we could have stayed longer. It is strange being back here as I am sure when we left in 2015 we would have thought we wouldn’t be back. Winter hasn’t really descended upon this part of Norway yet and the temperature is still reasonable in the single digits.

After a reasonable sleep and a great breakfast we pack up our gear, store it in the luggage room and head out to check out Bergen for a couple of hours. We don’t check in to the Hurtigruten Cruise terminal until mid to late afternoon so we go for a wander. I spy a necklace from a German designer I saw when we were in Norway last and at the time I would have loved to buy one so we check it out. It is Coeur de Lion designer and only cosmetic jewellery but quite stunning and colourful. Since Scot still hasn’t bought me a 50th Birthday present this seems like the ideal gift especially since we can claim back the tax when we leave.

A lot of shops are closed for the season which I guess you can expect this as there are only a few more shopping days until Christmas. As we wander around I remember I haven’t got any sea sick tablets – just on the off chance we strike rough waters. It doesn’t take much to get seasick and I don’t want to spoil my holiday if it happens, so we find a chemist and make our purchase. We search for a café for a coffee but as we look around I don’t remember Bergen being so expensive for just a cuppa. Perhaps we didn’t buy much last time here but the average price is aud$10 for a coffee which I do not remember paying. But you can’t live your holiday constantly comparing prices (although I find that difficult not to) so we have a drink and watch as the rain comes down. We eventually head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the cruise terminal. The ship is late as the crossing has been rough so we check in a bit late. We get our cabin key cards and information and head on to board. We are on deck 3 which turns out to be a better one than we thought. The layout of the ship is very similar to vehicle ferries we have taken throughout Europe only it has been recently refurbished from what I have read. The ship is called the Richard With – this is the name of the founder of the Hurtigruten ships and is pronounced Rikard Wit.

We organise our stuff and empty our suitcases (although they have lost Scot’s and we are panicking a bit as we are about to leave port and Scot is having horror visions of his bag being left behind with the Jamesons and Baileys in it bugger the clothes. However after much persistence we finally ask them to check room 332-we are in 323- and yes they have put it into an empty room. Whew) since this will be our room for the next 7 days. We have 2 bunk style single beds which turn out to be really comfortable. Our port hole is right near the gangway so we see all the activity in port. Dinner is buffet style which starts as soon as we are on the ship. The food is abundant and there is something for everyone. The food is delicious and I can see the kilos piling on, on this trip if it is like this every day! We head out of Bergen around 11pm and we head up on deck to watch Bergen fade into the distance. It is cold on deck so we don’t stay too long and there is going to be so much to do so we head to our cabin. We are advised that the sea is going to be rough so I take a seasick tablet just to be on the safe side. I actually take one each day as we have a small piece of open sea each day of our travels. It is reasonably soothing rocking in the ship but every now and then there is a huge wave and I can see it splashing up against our window. I am quite glad we are down low in the ship so not as much rolling as other cabins.

This fleet of eleven Hurtigruten ships(sailing since early 1900’s) are essentially the main lifeline up the west coast of Norway. They call into about 40 different ports(all ships calling into each port every 12 hours so very tight shedules) on their way up and on their way back. They take mail, cars, people and any other deliveries necessary to each of the ports they call into. They take cruise passengers as a sideline really to make extra money. It is not your standard cruise ship – they do not have activities on board other than a few board games and the odd event like the crossing of the arctic circle so you really have to amuse yourself the whole time. They have excursions in some of the ports they stop in which are optional. You can get off in any of the ports they stop in, but they have an incredibly strict policy – if you are not on board 5 minutes before they leave port you will be left behind and you will have to find your own way to the next port to get back on. They say there is always one person each trip that has to take a taxi or whatever to get to the next place due to missing the ship. The fact that the ship doesn’t have any activities is of more interest to me as that means we can relax, watch the scenery, meet other people and read when it gets too dark for that.

Because our cabin is right by the gangway I tend to wake up at each port – mostly because I want to see where we are but also because our curtains are never closed and the lights shine in. It is a little sleep depriving but I don’t want to miss anything. The ship also has an alert system where you get told when the northern lights are showing so you can get up in the middle of the night if you want to see them.

Our first day and we stop in the major port of Alesund which is an art nouveau town. It burnt to the ground in the early 1900’s and was completely rebuilt in this style. It is quite a stunning town to walk around. We have booked onto the excursion of an art nouveau walk around town which is very informative and interesting. The only thing that spoils it is a single whinging female whom lives in Zurich but is from Armenia. She is complaining all the time about there being no snow and it is sleeting as we walk around the town and she is getting wet (Oh dear that’s so dreadful). She gets really shitty with the tour operator because of the lack of snow – like he made sure there was none when she arrived ……wtf?? I have said before we leave that yes if we don’t get snow, see the northern lights or get to do the dog sledding then that is a bummer but it won’t spoil my trip – stuff happens and you can’t change that. Anyway part way through she huffs off back to the ship with her rather elderly (and probably rich) husband. We enjoy the rest of the town walk and head back ourselves.

We head off out of port. As I mentioned there is no snow here yet. Due to global warming, Norway does not get the snow they would have in December anymore. They have to wait until later in January until it arrives. The scenery is lovely around the many islands we cruise amongst. There is snow at a higher level though which keeps the chill in the air. Our daylight hours aren’t too bad in this part of Norway since we are below the arctic circle. Once we get above it, we will get down to a couple hours of partial daylight. Most of the rest of this day is spent watching the scenery, reading or eating. You have a fixed table at dinner time and that is the number you sit at every night. Plus you have a set time to eat and you can’t eat any earlier or later. Our table has 2 other couples whom both live in Brisbane – of all places. One couple comes from Christchurch originally though. Our dinner time is 8.30pm though which makes it quite late and we are hungry waiting for that time to come.

Our 2nd day – 23rd of Dec – our port is Trondheim. Again there is not snow here but we leave the ship and have a walk around the town for a bit. I am now paranoid enough about missing the ship that we get back with more than enough time to spare. I couldn’t afford the taxi fare(or helicopter!) to the next port! Trondheim is a nice city, but not a patch on Aresund in terms of architecture. Everything is closed as well so there isn’t a lot to see within a short walking distance. Everyone back on board and we head back out of port.

When boarding the ship we had a choice to get a wine package or a beer package which if bought provides you one bottle of wine each day to have with lunch and/or dinner. The package costs 3000Norweigan Kroner which is about Aud$600. That equates to 6 bottles of wine in total costing $100aud or 60gpb each. I would say they are probably $15/8gbp store bottles in Aussie. We decline this offer as the cost is prohibitive but also wine seems to cause me horrendous headaches as of about 3 months ago so no point me having any. We did however bring in our suitcases 2 bottles of bubbly, 1 bottle of jamesons and 1 bottle of baileys, plus a 6 pack of beer. They are ok with this providing you drink it in your cabin which we mostly did. There is a water package as well which was 50 pounds each which entitles you to 2 small bottles of water each day. The tap water is drinkable(plus we have our valuable water filtering bottles) and you can have this at meals too, so we declined that as well. I thought long and hard about what to take on this trip that may be necessary and make it less expensive. So I packed packet soups, tea, hot chocolate, coffee, uhf milk and I bought one of those single cup water heaters which we used to heat the water up. It was invaluable and saves us a lot of unnecessary expense on cups of tea etc. We did have small presents of chocolate for each other as Chrissy presents so they can in handy too.

In Europe they celebrate Christmas Eve and not Christmas day. On Christmas Eve they swap presents, have a celebratory meal and do the church service thing. So on the next day we headed into Bodo. We are now over the Arctic Circle and there is snow on the ground in Bodo as well as lots more on the islands we pass. The daylight hours go from semi normal hours to partial daylight from about 10.30 until about 1-1.30pm. It is dark after that. When we arrive in Bodo – it is Christmas Eve, but early in the afternoon. Since it is snowing, we gear up, put our waterproof trousers on, our snow boots plus warm stuff. We walk into town, throwing snowballs at each other and laughing so much. It is so much fun and the fairy lights reflecting off the now gives it a magical feeling and I feel like a kid again. I can’t get the smile off my face! The town is mostly closed but is so cool. They have a way with their lights, they’re awesome. I spot a camperbus parked in the town and they have a Santa sitting in the driver seat – very cool. We head back to the ship as they are doing a walk up to the church later for the afternoon service. Although we are not religious and wouldn’t normally go, we do like to participate in events like this and experience another country’s culture especially at Christmas. About half the ship 150 people left and walked together with lit fire torches through the town to the church – I am sure the town folk wondered what was going on. The service was great – lots of singing Christmas songs and a lovely choir, we both really enjoyed it. Then we all head back to the ship for dinner and leaving port. I am still excited by the snow – it’s awesome.

That night we join a few other guests and spend a few hours making xmas tree decorations from craft materials and everyone made some really cool ones. Then we all helped decorate the tree with lots of others watching. It turned out looking fantastic and colourful – what a great idea from the entertainment director – and a great way to bring people from different countries together. We met one lady who works in Afghanistan so got to know her during the cruise which does enrichen the experience.

Xmas Eve we all sang songs around the tree in English, German & Norwegian very cultural when you have different countries celebrating xmas.

The next day is Christmas day – the one I have been looking forward to the most. The scenery where we are is stunning, with snow everywhere on all islands and the lights on and in the houses reflects off it making it fairy tale like and magical. The ship has it’s ‘crossing the arctic circle’ ceremony which entails putting ice cubes down your back and then entitles you to an alcohol shot of schnapps or similar. Scot participates but I need to photograph it so am forced to stay on the sideline….lol. Not sure whether the wet arse was worth the Scnapps though.

We arrive in Tromso just after lunch and there is heavy snow and it seems like the clouds are dispersing which is a great sign for possible northern light sighting. We take the bus from the ship and head inland to where the huskies are. Tromso hasn’t been so fortunate the last week having lots of rain which washed all the snow away, so most tour operators weren’t able to run. Our very good fortune, it started to snow again and settle 2 days ago, so now we have enough for the sledding. This husky place has 300 dogs. They all start to bark at once which is a huge racket and they are unbelievably friendly. The staff encourage pats and cuddles as the dogs love it. When we arrive the sleighs are all harnessed up and we are each shown our sled with it’s 8 dogs – 2 people to each. These dogs live to do this, they absolutely love it and they are so competitive, they try to pass each other. It is such a huge sport here. The ride is awesome. The dogs are funny – the two in the front are female leaders – smarter than the others and know where to go just by voice commands. The last two are the strongest males who take a lot of the weight of the sleigh. The dogs grab mouthfuls of snow as they run along when they get thirsty – this is a natural way of them getting water. I had started to feel it a little cruel, but when you see the dogs chafing at the bit to take off and run you realise that they adore what they do. This was such an amazing experience, I could have had a second go. After our ride we got to pat as many of the dogs as we wanted, they were all straining for attention at their respective kennels. They are such adorable dogs. After everyone has had a coffee & cake in the traditional wooden huts and bought souvenir’s we are finished and we head back to the ship.

After dinner – which because it is Christmas was supposed to be special, but turns out to be the worst meal they have put on strangely. Because we are the last ones to eat, we often miss out on some of the food they put out – like all the lobster and crab was gone. They did put on a ‘Cake Buffet’ though which we partook in prior to dinner or we would have missed out. It was delicious. I think desert should always be first so you aren’t too full from the main meal. After dinner, we headed out onto deck to watch us leaving Tromso as we will be back here in a couple of days. The sky has cleared and all of a sudden we start to see the Northern lights. All I can say is WOW, WOW and WOW!!! Strangely though, our naked eye cannot see the colours that our cameras pick up, but we see a white misty- like movement in the sky which all I can say is the most amazing spectacle. It looks a bit like smoke but it moves in the most incredible way. Difficult to describe and it would have been more spectacular if we were in a quiet countryside location watching it as we would have heard the noise of it rather than the ships engines. I got some photos but they don’t do it justice because my camera is a shitty one without any lenses. We are both in tears watching it as the experience is so amazing. We wait until there is nothing more to see before we head back inside to bed. I am so keyed up I can’t sleep. At around 2am, I get dressed and head back up on deck. There are small pockets of the northern lights but nothing like we saw so I head back to bed. I am woken again about 3.30am (not sure if I actually got to sleep though) with a speaker announcement that the northern lights are showing again, so we both get dressed as fast as we can because they can disappear as quick as they appear, and head back on deck. There are more shows but again nothing like we saw earlier, so we head back to bed.

The next day we are travelling around the very top of Norway and after breakfast we stop in a location called Honningsvag. From here we have an excursion to the North Cape. There are 3 busloads of us going from the ship, one German and 2 English speaking busses. The guide on the bus explains about the countryside we travel through on the way to the Northern most point of the civilised European continent. The surrounds are snow covered and the roads are too. The winter tyres here are amazing. They are a slightly softer material than the summer tyres and they have rubber spikes on them that help grip in the snow. The bus is travelling at normal speed on a snow laden road which surprises me. I haven’t seen or experienced winter tyres before. It takes us a good ¾ of an hour to get to the North Cape. There isn’t as much snow as I expected there to be here but there is still a bit. Lucky we have snow boots. There is a visitor centre that show a movie on the Northern lights and souvenirs etc. To the north is nothing but ocean until you get to the North Pole. This is a very isolated place.

We have had it drummed into us on the ship that if we are late back to the ship it will be gone, so on these excursions you don’t mess around and miss the boat. Scot goes to see the movie about 40 minutes before we are due to leave and I am waiting upstairs so we can get to the bus on time, but I end up in a mad panic when by the time I thought the movie should have finished, he doesn’t show. The theatre is 4 floors below and there are 2 ways to go upstairs. I race down one way hoping he isn’t going up the other way and even enlist help from other passengers we have gotten to know. I am getting really uptight with about 5 minutes to go and am imagining us having to taxi all the way to the next town when Scot shows up (I only went to the bloody toilet there was at least 45 seconds left ). I am so panicked that I am angry. It costs a huge amount to get a taxi here in Norway. Anyway we get back on the bus and all is well and I eventually calm down. I imagine the countryside in this part would be quite barren and bland if it wasn’t so pretty with all the snow around. I doubt much will grow on this type of countryside. Back on the ship and of course it is dark by the time we get there. There are more northern lights showing today but still not as impressive as Christmas day but they are showing for a couple of hours. I stand on deck watching, essentially freezing my butt off as I am standing there for such a long time. On deck they bring out two giant crabs from the Northern Ocean and large they are indeed. They also have a large urn of hot soup that they dish up to all those up on deck which is lovely.

I have to say that on the whole the food was lovely on the ship. It was only on Christmas day and one of the set menu meals that weren’t that fantastic, but all other food was lovely. We had a lot of salmon of course and it was so delicious. One night I think I filled my plate with baked salmon because it was so nice, I just couldn’t help it. Of course there was also lamb and beef amongst lots of other things.

So the final night on board and we are both sad to think it has ended. It is now that I wish we had booked the return cruise back to Bergen as a lot of people on the ship have. I thought it would just be stopping at the same ports, but they stop at ports at different times and so you get to see a whole lot of different places – ones we had stopped at during the night. We have to have our suitcases packed and out at the lifts by midnight as they take them outside for you in the morning when you leave the ship. So packed up we are, only our clothes for the morning still with us. In the morning we have to be out of our cabins by 8am and off the ship when we dock at Kirkenes at 9. So we get ourselves dressed, packed and out by 8 to the restaurant to have breakfast before we leave the ship. We have booked an extra excursion today as I believe there isn’t enough to do in Kirkenes to keep us occupied for the entire day. So after our final breakfast on the ship we head off and onto the bus that will take us to the Russian border. The bus takes us to a bomb shelter at Kirkenes and play us a movie about the war and the people of this town. The whole town survives by hiding in a mine for 2-3 months not far from the town for a period of time. It is amazing. Then we head to the border. Russia and Kirkenes have an arrangement – they can each cross over the border and get things they want without any visa for a short period of time. If Norwegians want to avoid paying tax when crossing back they need to stay in Russia for 24 hours and there is no tax. Petrol is cheaper in Russia which is great for Norwegians. It works both ways. It is cold at the border and there isn’t much there except a fence and a gate and a building on the Russian side. A small souvenir shop is there and a gorgeous husky dog is outside in the snow. After a short visit we are back on the bus and heading back to Kirkenes stopping for a lovely view over the town on the way back. It is only lunchtime and our flight out isn’t until 7pm so we get off at one of the hotels and put our bags in their storage. We hang out with a couple we were at dinner with – who are essentially Kiwis as well but live in Brisbane. We have a walk around the town but most shops are still closed and it is a tiny town. We stop and have a coffee and after a while wandering we let the others do their own thing and pick up our luggage, grab a taxi and head to the airport. We still have 3 hours until we fly out. There isn’t anything open at the airport where we are so we bring out our heating element for water in our cups and packets of soup. We sit and have that and then finish off the muesli bars we still have left. We pack up our bags and head through to departure. As we are sitting waiting the flight seems to be getting delayed further and further until eventually it is cancelled. What a buggar. We had been told that there are no hotel rooms left in town and no flights out by Hurtigruten staff, however when we check with the desk we get rescheduled on a flight at 8am the next morning. The airline is putting us up at The Thon hotel which is very nice. We get an amazing room at the top but it is so late we don’t have time to enjoy it. We even have a coffee machine in our room. The hotel put on food for us as we haven’t had dinner and we are hungry. After a shortish night sleep we are up very early, down to breakfast and on a free taxi to the airport.

Our flight is on time and we head out to Tromso. On arriving we head to our hotel, Scot slips over on the icy snow and lands on his butt. Wish I had my camera on. We book in and head out for a wander around the town. Tromso is a lovely town, heavily snowed in but very cute. The hotel puts on crepes in the afternoon for free which we head back for. They also put on dinner in the evening which we head back down for. It isn’t bad for free. They have a 3 course dinner if you want it. The next day we fly out of Tromso and into Trondheim. The flight is delayed but not badly. We have already had a look around Trondheim but we decide since we have about 7 hours before we fly back out we will check in our luggage and head into town. In hindsight we find that there isn’t much we haven’t seen, it is wet and cold and I feel we have wasted the $120 it has cost to get the bus(we even got on the wrong bus and had to walk back to the original one haha) in and back again. But that is Norway for you. Back at the airport and our flight out to Copenhagen is delayed – but whats new. We are getting used to that already. It isn’t a long flight but it is late when we get there. We catch a train to the hotel which is only 2 stops away from the airport. We are hungry but after waiting a considerable amount of time at the hotel to get the food we have ordered it comes out late and cold. I complain and we walk away from it and go to bed after a cup of soup.

In the morning we have 4 or 5 hours before we need to head to the airport so the hotel stores our bags and we head into town. I want to buy some headache tablets here that I haven’t seen anywhere else in Europe. Copenhagen is a lovely place and we wander around looking for a pharmacy where normally you can only buy 1 packet of anything with codeine in it but the lady asks me how many I want 5?, 10? Packets…lol. No I don’t need that many but I may have to come back in a couple of years to buy more. We have a coffee, walk around the haven – the main harbour area which is far less busy than the last time we were here. We have seen enough and head back to the hotel, grab our bags and take the train to the airport. Although I am sure that Murphy will prevail and our flight will be delayed I still like to get there early just in case.

After checking in and waiting at the gate for a while the pilot comes out and announces to us that Heathrow has a major fog problem and our flight has been delayed by at least 4-5 hours. Great. No change here. The airline does supply vouchers for food though so we head off the claim ours and get a free feed and drink. Eventually we head out on our 2 hour flight home. It is about 10 when we land and the bus takes forever to arrive and take us back to the hotel our car is at. We head around the back to it and open the boot to put our suitcases. Scot sees the back seat lying down and says – we didn’t leave it like that surely! Sure enough as I head around the side of the car I see our window has plastic on it and has been smashed. Bastards. Not Happy JAN!!! We take a look inside the car and the back side window has been completely smashed and there is glass on every inch of the inside of the car. They have ransacked it and strewn everything all over. What a wonderful finish to our amazing holiday……Not. We manage to brush the glass off where we will sit and the hotel helps us put proper plastic on the window. It has already been logged with the police so we head home.

The end of one of the most amazing adventures that I have ever been on. I am not sure how we will top this one(Africa, Brazil,Canada..??) but I would love to come back and do it again one day. I think I would come again late in January next time. Watch this space for our next adventure.

OSLO

The camp we stayed at called Rustberg Camping had several very tame rabbits in a cage.  I felt sorry for them as their base was a kind of dirt and stone and we hadn’t seen much grass in the time we were there and rabbits can eat grass almost all day.  So on the way to the showers I took some pieces of veges and as much grass as I could rip off for the poor things.

We decided to visit the Olympic bobsled at Hunderfossen before heading off to Oslo.  It looked a bit deserted but we went and had a look.  They were offering rides on a summer (or Cool Runnings) style bobsled on the snow track without the snow, so I told Scot he should have a go as they needed one more person.  They travel about 100kms/hr in the summer style one and about 120kms in the snow.  He had a go and enjoyed it, but said they got jolted around quite a bit and the big guy behind him was digging his elbows into his shins as you sit very intimately in the sled.  It something most people will never have a chance to do in their life so I thought it was a great thing to do (even if I wasn’t game to have a go).

We then headed off to Oslo.  It was a couple of hours drive and Oslo was very busy – as all cities are I guess – as we hit the highway.  The camp ground was right near the city and like all city campsites didn’t have great reviews but you stay there for a purpose and not for the great campsite.  It was really a huge paddock with electricity around the outside for vans and you just parked where ever you could find a spot.  We parked up beside the roadway which was fine.  I spied what I thought were dodgy people in the campsite.  Scot said I thought everyone was dodgy, but you get a feel for those that don’t seem kosher.  I have been told by others that we were lucky in Voss where the gypsies were camping that we hadn’t been ‘targeted’, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing.  Anyway I was back up at reception as the wifi was non existent after paying $10 for 24hr access and the dodgys were standing behind me when a lady came in and stood behind them.  She asked where they were from and one guy said they were ‘Esperanto – Gypsies’, it was funny the lady said ‘Oh’ and didn’t speak further.  In a typical camp ground everyone leaves their chairs, tables etc outside even when they go away for the day.  We have seen it in all camps including city camps we have stayed at, but at this camp not a soul left anything outside their vans which was very strange indeed.  But I figured it may have been due to the large number of gypsies living in this campsite.  There were a lot of them all camped together.

11 August

We bought a 24 hour bus pass the next morning and headed off into the city early.  Oslo had on a jazz festival so we had hoped we might get to see some free concerts in the town centre.  We walked around the town for a bit and found a bus that could take us out to an area that had a few museums.  We don’t normally do museums because they take so much time to see things and you don’t end up seeing much of anything else which is not ideal when you only have a day or so in a city.  But we did decide to have a look at the polar museum where Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott’s North and South Pole adventures and the ship Fram was displayed.  They had preserved the ship and built the whole museum around it – really well done.  It was an excellent complete history of their polar expeditions and we both enjoyed it.  The only downside was a large group of young children who were visiting the museum were not being supervised and we had to put up with every one of about the 100 or so ringing the bell of the ship very loudly continuously for about an hour which was so annoying.

 

We caught the bus back to the city, but we had only gone about a km and the bus driver stopped the bus, turned off the engine and sat there.  No word, no nothing and we were all looking at each other wondering what was going on.  Then on the screen it said the bus was moving on in 45mins.  Eventually he said something in Norwegian which we realised meant we needed to leave and get another bus that was sitting near.  We walked around the fort area near the docks and then walked down to the main street where they were about to have a jazz session play.  We needed to try and get wifi access so we headed to a café for a coffee and thought we would head back to the jazz in a short while.  Unfortunately the jazz only played for a short time and we missed out.  They were packing up the stage when we walked back – we weren’t that long.  I was disappointed.  We had a walk around the city some more and took in some of the atmosphere before catching a bus back to the camp.  Oslo isn’t a very big city and there isn’t a lot of old buildings.  I can’t remember but I think we were told that Oslo was bombed in the war because the Germans used the Norwegians and most buildings were destroyed.  Only Bergen has all it’s old historic buildings still left.  The architecture of some of the modern city buildings is quite different and interesting in Oslo.

12 August

We left Norway the next day and headed back to Sweden.  In countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden where they have their own currency it is really difficult to manage having some cash and leaving with none so that you have spent it all and you aren’t wasting any.  We normally buy groceries or a coffee or something if we have any money left over.  We stopped just inside the Norway border at a supermarket to buy some groceries, particularly some Salmon which is so cheap in Norway – about $20 a kilo.  The lady stuffed up though as I wanted to pay some cash and the balance on card, but she put the whole lot on card and I was still left with the 120nok, so we had coffee and pastries that we didn’t really want and it was quite awful too, so I was a bit cranky about that.

I am going to sum up my experience in Norway expense wise since there are so many people saying how terribly expensive it is.  We got told that the wages are high in Norway so prices don’t seem bad to citizens.  I don’t shop at the cheap shops as I have said before I like variety and fresh fruit and veges and I cant get this at Aldi style supermarkets.  Fresh veges and fruit is a good price – in fact on the whole generally cheaper than Australia even with the dreadful exchange rate we are getting.   Fish is ridiculously cheap and fresh.  Chicken is about twice our price and meat seemed to be comparable to Aus. Packet foods like rice, pasta, soup, biscuits, tea, chips etc  – not that we buy much is comparable to Australia prices. Bread appears to be expensive but you never see much of it so I don’t think it is part of their staple diet.  Alcohol is definitely very expensive (so don’t drink J) and so is chocolate – that’s sad.  We looked at the price of holiday houses in desirable areas near ski fields and they were quite reasonable.  These houses wouldn’t necessarily be for just holiday as they were near enough to places where there would be work.  There were houses for the equivalent of $40,000 and they went up from there.  Yes the $40,000 house wouldn’t be much, but if you look at what isn’t much in Aust then you will still be looking at a lot more than that near to towns.  The average would have been between $200,000 -$300,000.  I am sure if you looked in Oslo you would see prices closer to our high city prices though.  We saw cars in car yards and the prices were also about the same as what we would pay in Aus for second hand cars.  We saw plenty of clothes for 100 – 200 nok (15-30aud) which is about the same and you can pay equally larger amounts for designer clothing and shoes.  I don’t know a lot of the other prices, but on the whole I would say that Norway is not as expensive a city as people say, but is about on average no different to what we pay in Australia, but they definitely get paid more than we do based on what we have been told about the wages.  Norway has been the more expensive country we have visited which just proves to me how expensive Australia has become over the last few years.

I have to say though that I absolutely love the summer fruit season here – raspberries, blueberries and strawberries are so cheap.  I am paying about $5 for a huge punnet of raspberries – would cost me about $50 for the same amount in Aus (and yes I used to buy them), so I am enjoying them everyday, so yummy.

On to Sweden.  We were heading over to Ringerum which is just south of Soderkoping (pronounced Sodershopping) to call in on Lloyd’s family (I work with Lloyd) before we head up to Stockholm.  It is a long journey right across Sweden so after 6 hours on the road we saw a sign on the side of the road for a campsite so we headed off the highway for the night.  We found this lovely little camp ground right on a lake front and it had a beach and walkways around an area so that kids could swim safely.  It was a lovely hot day so when we arrived we decided we had to go for a swim.  It is often hottest about 5pm.  The swim was welcome and the lake temp was about 22deg so was just lovely.   No wifi at this place and nothing to concentrate on other than relaxing and reading.  We loved the lake environment so much we decided we needed to stop driving for at least one more day so stayed on the next day.  We had a few swims out to the little island just off the beach and sat in the sun reading.  We did get a bit burnt though as we hadn’t realised just how long we had been sitting in the sun.  They had yummy ice creams which we enjoyed late in the day.  What I like most about here is the fact that there were young and old bulgy bouncy ladies in bikinis who had no hangups about their size or age.  I felt much better and wished I had bought a bikini top and not just the long two piece I bought for 3 euro in Coevorden, Netherlands.  (This was from a shop that had a sale on and I wasn’t sure I would wear the two, two pieces I bought but who can turn down 1.50euro per piece for bathers! Glad I now did.)

LILLEHAMMER

8 August

We had a lovely walk in the morning in Fagernes (Scot had a bit of a run) and then sat and had a coffee before going back to the van for breakfast.  It was a wee bit cold for a swim again with a cool wind blowing.  The temperature is always at its warmest later in the day around 4-5pm strangely enough.

We get on the road and after asking another camper about a road we were uncertain was good enough to travel on we headed off for Lillehammer.  We took the road that was less than the highway and going up the first mountain was ok, but the road deteriorated on the way down, it was a bit narrow and the surface wasn’t the best but the road then improved and stayed good all the way until we got back on the highway again.  The highway up to Lillehammer was busy – it seemed everyone must have been out for the weekend.  We stopped and bought a couple of rolls for lunch, which unfortunately turned out to be fruit buns.  It is difficult to know what things are if you can’t recognise the names of them and we sometimes make mistakes with what we buy.  We have nearly mistaken pork in one place for turkey it looked quite alike. We still ate the buns with our smoked salmon and salad and they were fine.

We arrived in Lillehammer and it was so busy.  We only knew where one camp was so we stopped outside the first McDonalds we had seen since Bergen (they just don’t exist outside the cities) to find out where the other camp was.  After going down a few wrong streets with very narrow and low underpasses that we wouldn’t have fitted through we eventually found the second camp.  We booked in and decided to go for a walk along the lake front and into the town centre.  The girls at reception told me it wouldn’t be a good idea to walk up to the ski jump area here as the whole town was on a hill and you wouldn’t want to walk up the hills.  They clearly hadn’t come across un-lazy people like us.  The lake looked good enough for a swim but I didn’t think we would be back from our walk in time.  We walked up into the town but ended up in a dodgy area where things were graffitied all over but it was ok, it was still daylight and we eventually found the town area.  The ski jump area wasn’t that far away but it had been a bit of a long walk up to the town trying to find a footpath beside a road we could walk on.  A few of the roads didn’t have room for people to walk along so we had to find other roads.  In the town we saw one of the really dodgy vans we saw in the freedom camping area we stayed in, in Voss.  There were about 10 guys in the van – a lot of them quite young.  They obviously travel around.  We walked around the town area which didn’t look bad, but my impression was that this place had had a lot of money spent on it in 1994 when they had the Olympics but bits of it had been left to deteriorate and looked quite poor which was such a shame as it could still be an amazing place.  We stopped and had a drink in the main street, but for a Saturday night there were very few people around.  We walked back to the campsite and found we had a bus full of French people as neighbours.  I thought they looked like a church group of some description, but from their actions I don’t think they were very Christian people.  One of the ladies emptied a childs potty out right beside our campervan – how disgusting.  There are toilets not far from us for that.  Plus they kept coming to stand right beside our van to look at the view – which wasn’t really that good and talking so that when we put our lights out they annoyed me.  I am tolerant to a point, but these people were something else.  They also had a poor baby that didn’t stop crying for 3 hours.  Poor baby, but it didn’t seem like anyone was trying to help the baby stop crying.  They were gone in the morning, but that didn’t matter so were we.  We drove up to the ski jump area to have a look.  How amazing to look up at the jump.  When you see it on the tv it is so different to seeing it up close.  They had a chairlift for anyone who wanted to go to the top but they also had stairs from the bottom to the top of the jump.  A few people were walking up the stairs so we decided to walk up to the top.  There were 936 stairs to the top and some of them quite steep as the area the skiers fly over gets almost vertical at one point.  What a climb and what a view from the top.  We went to the top of the jump tower where we looked down.  OMG is all I can say.  I think you have to have amazing guts to take off from that when you look down.  They had plastic brush type stuff over the jump area and lush grass at the bottom which they were wetting.

We were so lucky because as we were looking down at the jump we realised there were two young guys about to practice their jumps.  They can still practice without snow as the plastic is slippery and they run water down the tracks they slide down before they jump.  What an amazing thing to be able to watch these guys.  We thought they may have been practicing for the youth Olympics next year, but they were just out of that category and they were trying to improve for the main Olympics.  Wow what a treat.  We watched the jump from the top, then we walked halfway and watched from there and then again from the bottom as we climbed back down the 936 stairs.  I have posted some of the photos I took and because the jump is much bigger than it looks in the photos you have to really look for the guys jumping in the middle of the photos.  When you look at the whole jump, you can just make out the people who are walking up the side of it, they look like ants.  One of my pictures I took on the side of the steep part of the jump so you can see just how steep it is.  Scot thought he had balls racing sidecars until he watched these guys take off down the slope.  We think you must have to start as a very young child to get over the fear you would have when you look down that slope.  Such a special treat.

We drove out of Lillehammer and were going to see the bobsled track but it was getting on a bit so we went up to a camp ground a bit north of Lillehammer and stopped there for the night.  Unusual there were few campers here.  I think most people are starting to go home as the holidays are nearly over.  It is lovely and quiet here.  We found out they had saunas in both male and female shower blocks so since there wasn’t anyone in them we had a sauna together in the female one, you aren’t supposed to, but what a waste having a separate one.  That was lovely and necessary to sooth the muscles after doing 2000 steps today.  A lovely dinner of Thai chicken curry and off to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to Oslo.

 

ISDALSTO, VOSS, FLAM, FAGERNES

5 August

We said goodbye to the farm camp and drove up north around Bergen.  We are off to Isdalsto to visit the Norwegian couple we had met in Copenhagen.  This place is just a bit further north of Bergen so not far off our next route where we will head back towards Oslo.

We had to stop at a camping and caravan store to buy a seal for our toilet as it had started to leak.  I guess it is probably quite old and they don’t last forever.  Thankfully they had what we needed so we will have to fit this in the next day so that it is back working properly again.

We arrived at Laura and Knut’s house which is a lovely 130 year old timber home with a huge amount of land around it.  It is quite amazing when you see the house you would never guess it is that old.  I reckon they obviously built/build houses incredibly well here in Norway.  Plus I think they maintain them really well too.  You rarely see rundown unkempt houses here.

It was so nice to have someone again to visit in a place where we know no one and just happened to hit it off with this lovely couple.  Knut was working in the North Sea oil rigs so we missed seeing him unfortunately. Laura made us coffee and waffles with strawberries and cream – so totally unexpected and really lovely.  We ate the waffles like they were Belgian ones – not as they do here in Norway.  It sometimes amazes us how you can get on so well with someone you have only met once, but we had a wonderful afternoon and though we were offered to stay the night, we sadly had to say no as we needed to keep on moving onwards towards Oslo.  Laura had made a delicious soup – more like a casserole to us, that she gave us to take with us along with some other Norwegian goodies.  It was so welcome to have tea for the night especially as we freedom camped late that night and it meant Scot didn’t have to cook.  Laura loves to practice her English which I can well understand as you do tend to lose any language that you aren’t often using.

We really hope we can catch up with them both again sometime in the future before we head away from this part of the world.

Our freedom camp was outside of Voss where we had previously passed through on the Norway in a nutshell tour.  We decided to stop in a rest stop on the fjord front where there were already a few campers staying.  We thought it would be a safe place where there are others.  It was ok until I started to not like the look of a few of those who were camping there the night, but it was too late to make a change by this time.  There were other quite respectable vans there so Scot was of the belief we were ok.  I didn’t sleep well though as I hadn’t before when freedom camping as there were others arriving through the night who were talking to the ones I didn’t like the look of.

The next morning, I found out why I didn’t quite like these people – they were very dodgy looking  Bulgarians (I wasn’t holding that against them) but they were living out of their cars.  I have developed a real suspicion about these nationalities like the Romanians and Bulgarians in countries such as this as they are cited for their bad behaviour all the time.  When I see them like this, many of them together living in one car (3 in this case) – although they did have a van with a Swedish number plate which I wondered how they had acquired that – I get quite suspicious.  Norway is an expensive country for most but for those nationalities it would be difficult for them to survive here as they are generally much poorer.  It seemed that this was their nightly camp and there were about 12 of them living there.  We spied one of the girls selling a magazine in Voss similar in style to those who sell the Big Issue in Brisbane city. I just didn’t get a good feel about these people and I was very glad to be moving on, maybe they were ok, but maybe they weren’t.  Gut instinct to me is everything when travelling and they just looked like real ratbags.

We stopped in Voss to have a look around and then continued on around the route the bus and train had taken on the tour we did.  We stopped at Gudvangan, but there isn’t a lot there.  It is mostly just a carpark for buses and cars who are going on the ferry trip around the fjord.  There was a cute little cottage with God Kaffe (Good Coffee) so we stopped there and had a cup with a local ‘cake’ called Lefse which was like a sweet flat bread rolled up with a spread on it and we were told that different parts of Norway make a different tasting spread for the Lefse.  It was very different to what we are used to but pleasant.  Scot is always eating the red currents that are currently growing on bushes all over so he had a few in the garden this little cottage had.

We travelled on to Flam where we decided to stop in the camping ground for the night as we liked it here when we got off the ferry a couple of days ago.  It is quite reasonably priced, clean and well laid out.  We are parked on a terrace with a view of Flam and a river that runs into the fjord.  I had been getting cranky about the van as you don’t get a chance to give things a good spring clean that often when you are always on the road, so since we had stopped early today we both got to and did some of our overdue jobs.  We fixed the toilet first, then Scot got on the roof to make some further water proofing fixes where we thought there was a problem still and I spring cleaned inside, doing all the washing and dusting and sweeping out the interior.  It feels great when this is done.

We then took a walk up a near by nature trail which has a great view over the fjord and surrounds.  We watched the ferry that we took arriving in and the people getting onto the Flam rail.

We had another delicious dinner complements of Laura and it started to rain, so we are snuggled in our cosy van doing the blog and reading.

I think it rained all night as the ground was quite mushy when we got up, but it was so cool as there was fog/mist all around the fjord and the hills around us.  This is how a fjord is supposed to look – misty and eerie.  We packed up and headed off on the E16 highway towards the East.  The countryside starts to change as we head away from the west coast of Norway.  We drove through the longest tunnel ever – we thought 11kms was long but this one was 24kms long.  Almost as far as from Clontarf to the city.   Scot found out that there is a tunnel in Norway that is 45km long which took a while to build but saves a lot of work maintaining the alternative road over the mountain.  They cut out so much difficult travelling, I think NZ should start doing a few more tunnels to cut out some of the mountain drives, although that would then change the countryside so maybe not.  The countryside gets less mountainous and more lake like fjords with rivers often running into them.  We hit road works which went for quite a few kms but it was good to see them doing the roads up as some of this highway isn’t in the best shape.  I guess the snow and ice plays havoc with the maintenance of the roads.  Scot thinks all the beer tax is going on all the road works J.  We came across a few lovely settlements that were obviously ski  field areas where there were a lot of holiday chalets.  You can tell that Norway is like NZ when you come across sheep just either wandering over the main highway or lying along the side of the highway right near where we drive past.  Also came across a cow doing the same.  We planned to travel further today to get close to Lillehammer where we will head before Oslo, but with the slow travel due to road works we were held up and we only made it to Fagernes which is another lovely village on a lake.  It was quite warm in the sun this afternoon so we decided we had to go for a swim in Norway so this lake was the best opportunity.  It was quite cold and it took your breath away, but we still managed to have a bit of a swim.  I have not lost my paranoia about something lurking below me in the water after my scare which is crazy because there will only be fish swimming here, not sharks or dugongs, but regardless of what I tell myself I still get a bit freaked out when I can’t see much because of how deep the water is.  I hope this will eventually go.

Tomorrow we will go for a walk around the town and maybe another swim while we can if there is sun shining before heading off for Lillehammer.  Lillehammer is where the winter Olympics were held here in 1994 and will also hold the youth Olympics next year.

 

NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL

2 August 2015

We head off the next morning after a wet night and head up via Stavanger to the end of the road at Mortvika to catch the ferry.  We had to drive through two huge tunnels  – the first one was 9km and the second one was 5km.  They are so long you think you are never going to come out the other end.  Some of the tunnels are a little scary when you enter as your eyes are used to bright sunlight and the lights in some were out or not very bright and it makes it difficult to see.  The ferries are great here, they go everywhere which saves you having to drive around the long way to places.  Plus they leave every half an hour, they are really inexpensive and you don’t have to book beforehand.  Although if it was the middle of summer and school holidays I imagine you may have to book or else you may not make it on some of them.

We took the first ferry from Mortavika to Arsvagen which is about a 20 minute crossing, smooth as and cost us 206nok (aud$35) for us and the van.  They are so quick they roll on and off the vehicles so quickly.  We travel up then via the highway to Sandvikvag.  We were going to find somewhere to stay the night before we got the next ferry but there wasn’t really any places that presented as a suitable.  So we took the ferry from Sandvikvag to Halhjem which is the same as the last one, but was about $10 dearer as it was a 45 minute crossing.  But still for a country that is supposed to be expensive that is a great price.  We got to Halhjem and decided we needed to find somewhere for the night.  Scot wanted to freedom camp so we looked for places to stay.  We drove into a little place called Osoyro not far from the ferry which looked like a nice little place on the water.  We stopped at the marina which allowed 8 hours of parking and would have suited us for the night, but there was a lot of foot traffic going past and it didn’t feel quite right.  We asked at a service station where the nearest campsite was and they gave me a phone to ring them but they didn’t have any room.  The guy there gave us a brochure which showed farm camping.  I didn’t know where we had  rung so we decided to go and have a look and see if it was the same place the guy had rung for us or if it was somewhere different.

When we arrived it was the same place but the lovely owner of the farm Inger, let us park in her sons driveway park which was fine for us and it meant we were in a safer place than the marina.  They had a toilet and shower plus washing machine to use so was really great for us.  Inger mentioned that people had travelled into Bergen from here and the bus wasn’t that expensive so we decided to stay a few nights and see Bergen via the bus from here as well.

The next day we took the bus into Bergen and Ruth had suggested we look at the Norway in a Nutshell tour which looked and sounded amazing, so we booked on that for the afternoon tour.  The weather forecast had said the weather was going to turn bad the next day which made us also decide to do the trip on the first day in Bergen.

So from Bergen, we took a train that went through the valleys to Voss.  From Voss we took the bus to Gudvangan.  On one part of the road the bus driver went off the main highway onto a side route which climbed up really high and then came down this horrid steep narrow road (it was only one way) but the view was magnificent.  Then from Gudvangan we took the boat right round the fjord to Flam (pronounced Flom like you have a plum in your mouth).  Then we took a special railway from Flam to Myrdal which is one of the steepest railways in Europe.  The views were spectacular.  Then we caught the regional train from Myrdal via Voss to Bergen which had a cafeteria car with food and drink.  We then got the bus from Bergen back to Osoyro and got back to the van about midnight.  A long day indeed.  I can say that the scenery is spectacular and worthwhile doing – thanks for the suggestion Ruth!.  We took so many photos that the camera battery exhausted and my phone battery went flat.  I will limit what I put up as there are so many.  The main difference between the scenery here and in the South Island of NZ in the fjords is the vegetation.  NZ has rainforest and here is mainly pine/spruce trees but still stunning.  We met a lovely young American couple who teach in Japan and a lovely German couple we talked to on the trip.

4 August

We went into Bergen again on the bus to have a look around the city.  We visited an area that was all timber buildings – more like a hippy kind of place but it was so lovely.  I can’t remember what they called it, but we had a look around the many shops there and then went on down to the wharf.  There were about 7 boats that looked like they were whaling boats.  They had rounded sterns and big cranes on them and I wanted to buy a can of spray paint and graffiti them to stop the whaling.  But a tour guide I got the attention of told me they were actually oil boats so I was glad about that.  They believe they are whaling here in Norway in a sustainable fashion and the minke whales they hunt aren’t in danger of diminishing in numbers.  I still hate that they kill them and I don’t believe you can prove that it is a sustainable industry, as how can you count how many whales are left?  You can buy whale meat in most fish shops and it is on the menu of a lot of restaurants as well.  It is an awful looking meat as it is black.  I believe they may also export whale to Japan strangely enough.  I thought the Japanese took enough whale from our waters.  I read an article that said the whale meat has been getting rejected by Japan because of the high amount of toxic chemicals in them.  Sad to think a place that you would think was very pristine has chemicals in its oceans in dreadful quantities.  This is perhaps why some of the other Scandinavian waters have little or no fish and have problems with algae.

Bergen is a lovely place to look around – it’s Norways second largest city.  They have cool statues all over and a great café scene.  We walked around the streets just checking out the houses some which had cool little stair cases in narrow alleys which reminded me of some parts of Paris where you can climb up staircases in between houses and buildings and virtually get lost.  Scot had to see the church where the cannon ball had launched itself into a wall of a church during a battle with the English 350 years ago and had never been removed.

We even found Scot an inexpensive pair of waterproof hiking boots which really are necessary as we have had so much rain and our runners just get saturated.

We didn’t stay in town late.  We got back to our van early evening so we could get ourselves ready to head off the next morning.

LILLESAND, BORHAUG, SANDNES

Friday 31 July

The next morning we get up and go for a walk into Lillisand.  What a lovely little village.  In Southern Norway particularly, they all have white wooden houses with a couple of different colours of rooves.  See pictures of some of the buildings.  They look so fresh and vibrant and when you add the colourful flowers it just looks amazing.  There weren’t many people around and so it was lovely just to walk around the buildings and check it all out.

After breakfast we showered and I had the same problem again only this time thankfully I hadn’t started the shower, but it is a pain to have to get dressed again, go up to the office to explain the shower coin got chewed up and then go back again hoping that it doesn’t happen a second time.  We took off and drove through Kristiansand and stopped in a little seaside village called Mandal which is really pretty, as I guess most are on the seafront with a marina and white wooden buildings.  We found a little bakery and had a coffee and bread like danishes which were really lovely.  We haven’t had many that are so nice you just want to have another one.  It was lovely sitting in the sun after quite a few days of rain.  The little village was so busy with people.  The school holidays finish in Scandinavia in two weeks so hopefully it will all quieten down then.  We found a shop that sold electrical stuff and thankfully we found the type of electrical cable we need here in some of the camping grounds so we should be set now with that.

We drove on thinking we would stop earlier today than the last couple so we drove down a road from Rom and thought we may find a nice freedom camping spot around Lyngdal.  But it’s funny that you can’t find them when you want one and you always see spectacular ones when you aren’t looking.  We ended up driving right to the end of the peninsula but didn’t find a camping spot.  We did stop at Farsund and there was a hard stand at the marina there which we checked out as it wasn’t much to stay, but all the spots were taken and we couldn’t really find an appropriate spot to park so we moved on.  This looked like a great place to have a look around, but it wasn’t to be.  We passed a little place called Vik – which seemed appropriate to stop at, but these places are just off the main road and the access roads to them are more often than not very narrow and difficult to traverse so we are cautious not to drive down them.  Scot did have a run down this one to check out the road but it wasn’t the right place to stop.  So we continued on to the end which was a lighthouse on a very rugged part of the coat.  It was so like Irelands west coast – very rocky rugged and wind blown.  We had a look around there and back tracked to the nearest settlement which had a small hardstand marina where there was a couple of campers there already, so as it was late we stopped there for the night.  They are cheaper than camp grounds and they still have a toilet and shower to use which is fine, plus free wifi – even better if it’s free.

We were bedding down for the night when Scot went out and turned off the gas.  There were some young kids hanging around on their motorbikes so he yelled at them to f*ck off.  I was worried all night that they might come back and trash the van or at the least graffiti it, but thankfully they weren’t bad kids so we went unscathed.

The next morning we headed back to the main highway and back around to the west.  We drove to Flekkefjord where we had been going to drive the day before but didn’t so we stopped here for our standard morning coffee.  A nice town but busy and parking was difficult so we didn’t stay long.  At this point we decided to go of the main highway as on the map the road looked like it was ok.  This may be the last time we go off the main highway in Norway.

The road went from Flekkefjord through Sogndal, Hauge and up to Egersund.  It started out ok, it wasn’t bad, it was a little close passing cars, but it was manageable.  We went over the first very high climb which was windy U turn bends climbing up and then back down.  I wasn’t worried as I had driven this type of road in the  van we hired in NZ – which is why we did that – to make sure it wasn’t a problem.  But on the descent the brakes overheated as it was a major decent and they smelt really bad so we stopped at the bottom of the hill and had lunch while we waited for the brakes to cool down.  We took off again and then hit the worst climb of all. Had we known what it was going to be like we – or maybe just I – wouldn’t have driven it even though the road surface was good, it was a bit hairy.  We climbed up the very windy road that climbed up virtually a rock face, the photos don’t show exactly how scary the road was.  In parts we couldn’t have passed a car if one came towards us and there were a few cars on the road thus far.  We passed the odd camper and we both had to stop and pass slowly to be sure we could make it.  And I was getting the odd car flying towards me around a corner which was meant for only one vehicle and I had to stop suddenly so they could pass – a bit silly of them really.  Anyway we got to the major climb and then we got to the highest part of the mountain and it went into one lane with a tunnel through the rock with a sheer fall down the side.  As I approached it I saw a car coming out of the tunnel and it just kept coming.  In my understanding of the courtesy road rules on a road like this the car coming down waits for those coming up to pass as it is easier to stop going downhill than going up.  Anyway she didn’t stop.  When she got to us we couldn’t pass and she was looking at us like “ What are YOU doing you stupid people”.  She was young and obviously inexperienced so she just stopped her car and sat there looking at us.  So I backed back and although thankfully I didn’t have the sheer drop on my side I did have a deep gutter that had I gone into we would not have been going anywhere.  I eventually manoeuvred the van so we could pass with an inch to spare.  My heart was thumping and I wasn’t impressed.

We continued up through the tunnel where we came to a NZ memorial of all things.  There was a NZ flag flying and a plaque explaining about the 4 NZers  that were killed in WWII trying to get a German boat that was parked up in the Norwegian fjords illegally as Norway was supposed to be neutral and the Germans used them.  But two of the planes crashed and all were killed on board, so the Norwegians have erected this memorial to the men on board.  Although the road was a difficult one, the views were really spectacular (for the passenger anyway) and the photos can never do this stunning vista justice.  Knowing the road I wouldn’t drive it again, but having done it I am glad we did with what we saw.  It reminded me of one particular road we drove on in Ireland – a pass on the west coast.  It was horribly steep and in our little car I was shitting myself we would meet another car as we were going up as there was no way even two small cars could pass.  In fact on that road you couldn’t have passed a motorbike.  This wasn’t that bad but it brought back that memory.

We continued on and I was very aware of trying to not let the brakes overheat again which is hard as the gears just weren’t keeping the van under speed at all, but we were fine.  This was the last of the hairy roads and we went back to the highway as we weren’t keen on doing the second half of the road that tracked the coast.  It is difficult to know what a road is going to be like until you actually start to drive on them and in most cases you can start to drive but if you change your mind there is never anywhere to turn around so you are committed.

We stopped for the night in a campground in Sandnes as it was getting a little late to get the ferry above Stavenger.  Nothing to report about this place, just an ordinary ground obviously favoured by the Germans as there were many of them there which we hadn’t struck since we left the Netherlands.

 

NORWAY

Wed 29 July

Our little park stop was good for the night and we got up in the morning and took off – headed for Norway.  As we drove up the eastern side of Sweden, from the motorway, we saw some places that looked really lovely.  Especially from about Uddevalla, the scenery improved and looked quite cool.  It would be an area that would be much better to look around as I am guessing it is perhaps a little more like Norway with little islands and bays.  We had been told the south is the best part, but I am thinking that perhaps this western coastal part is much nicer scenery.  As you get further north east and inland there isn’t anything to see as the roads are surrounded by forest so you are unable to see any of the land.  There are lovely areas around the lakes though.  We will come back through Sweden to catch the ferry over to Finland so we still have a little more to see.

Today it is bucketing down with rain – our 7th day of rain in a row.  I guess we can’t complain too much as we have been very lucky to have had so little rain so far on our travels.

We think we will go to a camp ground in Oslo, so we head towards a campsite that is a little out of Olso.  We arrive there and it doesn’t look good.  The ground here is muddy, slushy, and the site itself looks really dodgy and Scot doesn’t like it.  So I go in anyway just to see if they have a vacancy and how much it is.  They tell us to look around, but when we do we know we will get in and never get out again.  So we decide to leave.  The other campsite right in the city is fully booked this week as Oslo is hosting the Norway cup.  This is a competition for young football players, whose teams come from all over the world.  A total of about 1500 teams compete in the Norway cup so it is a big deal here.  We may come back to that campsite on our way back to see Oslo.

We decide to head around Oslo and down towards Drammen.  As we come into Oslo, it looks so much like NZ, especially like coming into Wellington from the Hutt Valley.  The similarity is quite amazing. The traffic is busy like most cities but it is easy to navigate around.  We head south again, looking for a campground but when we got to Drammen we didn’t know where the site was so ended up on the south side miles out of the city centre and ended up stopping at a business and asking where the campsite was.  On the northside, almost opposite where we were.  So back we went.  As we drive down the road of the campsite, there is a massive puddle on the road and right beside it are two young kids riding their bikes home.  There are cars coming towards us and we can’t stop in time, but we go through the huge puddle and absolutely drench the poor kids who squeal as they are hit.  We piss ourselves laughing, but it isn’t really funny – there is nothing worse than being splashed by some buggar driving along the road, but we didn’t do it deliberately.

There are stores here called Kiwi which we have to check out, but Laura told me they were good value for buying groceries – Scot hopes the beer is cheaper here.  Found a spot by the river and hope we can get out in the morning.  It is still raining.

 

Thursday 30 July

I get up and go to have a shower.  There are only two so I have to wait.  Most of them are coin or token operated and these ones are no different.  So you can put a 10Nkk in for 6 minutes or 5nok for 3.5 minutes, so I try the 10, but nothing happens.  Then I put the 5 in and the water starts.  I have to say that you don’t even get cold water if you don’t put money in – you just don’t get any water and the time starts from the minute you put your coin in, not when you turn the water on.  So I wash myself, then I have 30 secs left so I soap up my hair thinking I will put the other 5nkk in that I have to wash the soap off, but I put it in and nothing happens.  Crap, I have shampoo in my hair, I am wet, I have no more coins and there is no water and someone left the door open wide to the showers so the whole camp ground can see in.  So I have to try to wrap my small shower towel around me, gather up my clothes and toilet bag and hope no one is looking and get into a basin cubicle so I can wash the soap off under the basin.  I knew it was a hilarious look but I felt totally ridiculous.  I think the owner thought it was funny when I told him the coin box wasn’t working properly.

As we pack up we are worried about getting out of our parking spot.  The ground is saturated and very muddy and we are not sure we will be able to drive off the grass.  There is an initial debate over who is the best driver to try to drive us out – but we decide it will be difficult no matter who is in the seat.  So I drive, but the wheels just sit and spin…buggar!!  It isn’t looking good, we may be here for another night…lol.  We back up a little as we can’t back up a lot as the river is about 10 metres from our rear and I don’t want to go skidding backwards into it.  Other campers come to our aid and with some carpet under the front wheel to get some grip plus a push we manage to get onto the concrete path and can drive out.  Scot is covered in mud as are the sides of the van.  The lady pushing got showered in the water that had been sitting on our roof, shame I didn’t see that…lol.

We get Scot cleaned up and head out of Drammen.  We were going to see Olso from here but it is something like 230nok return each to the city and we may be better off waiting until we can get into the camping ground that is in Oslo even though it is a dump from the sounds of it, it is ok for us to see the city.  So we will see Olso on the way out of Norway instead.  We head south towards Kristiansand.  We’ll see how far we get today and find somewhere to stop later in the afternoon.

On the motorway there are many tunnels.  They obviously see no benefit from going over hills as their roads go through most of them.  The roads are good and the scenery as we travel is really stunning.  Norway is everything people say it is scenery wise.  We take off on a smaller road to see some of the local sights which is good, but when you come across a pedestrian crossing, I have to slow down to 2nd gear which is better for the van as it doesn’t knock it around so much, but the crossings are everywhere.  It’s a bit slow going, but nice countryside.  We get back onto the main highway going south and it’s interesting it changes into a single lane each way and the speed lowers to 70km/hr for most of the way south. At one point, where we had rain and the roads seemed to be a bit greasy, a huge truck with 2 trailers slid on the corner and came towards the van, in that split second I looked to see if I could go somewhere but no dice and I had thought the second trailer was going to swipe us sideways into the rough. My heart was pumping so hard, but as his trailer got to the start of our lane he saved the slide.  I thought we were gonners for a second.

We stopped at Sandefjord for a coffee, muffin and make our sandwiches there.  Nice little town on the water.  Everywhere looks like it has a marina and there are always huge amounts of boats.

We make our way to Lillesand which is on the coast which looks potentially a lovely place to stay.  The campground is very full and the grass is also quite sodden but not as muddy.  We manage to secure a site, but again had to borrow an electric cord to suit our power cord to their power supply.  We need to buy one of these as it appears as if Norway use this different style of plug connection to ours.

Scot decides to go for a run as the rain is easing (we did have lovely sunshine for most of the day).  He is going to check out the local area on his run.  I give him 200nok in case he finds a pub to have a quick beer – which of course he does!  There is a 7 piece band playing tonight, so he chats to the owners father and the bar lady and has one beer so he can come back and tell me the good news.  He doesn’t want to tell me the bad news though, that is he didn’t realise the cost of the one beer he had – a bottle of local Norwegian beer which was 129nok ( equivalent of about aud$25)  Unbelievable, but it was a very expensive big hotel and also that is Norway with it’s alcohol prices.  The Govt here puts huge taxes on luxury things, so beer, chocolate etc is expensive, but so far the prices of food are either equivalent to aud prices or cheaper.  We will be interested to see how that translates as we do more in Norway.

Scot persuaded me to go back to that same hotel to listen to the band they had playing.  It’s weird how a foreign language doesn’t sound funny but everyone is laughing but you can’t laugh with them as you have no idea what is happening.  We decided to have a drink, but  a cheaper one than Scot had bought earlier.  It was still $26 for a wine and a beer.  A wee bit expensive.